How are affiliates planning to be compliant?

[Casinomeister]

Some of you may know, if you've been reading our newsletter, that I'll be on a panel discussion at the ICE on Wednesday discussing how affiliates are preparing to abide by the compliance guidelines of the UKGC. Any comments or thoughts on this? It would be great if I can get some replies from the trenches.

 

[KasinoKing]

Personally I just do what the program asks for.

If they are asking too much - I'll just dump 'em!
I need to reduce the number I work with anyway (as most are a waste of space).

KK

 

[Casinomeister]

Personally I just do what the program asks for.

If they are asking too much - I'll just dump 'em!
I need to reduce the number I work with anyway (as most are a waste of space).

KK

Do you do anything preemptive? Or do you just roll with the flow?

 

[interlog]

I will go with the rules as they are presented.

If you do have an opportunity and if there is a representative of the UKGC about, why don't they address more important matters to protect the gamblers by making all withdrawals irreversible or alternatively that the casinos must have the option to lock the withdrawal such as at Rizk and recently Casumo.

 

[dunover]

Basically I added the gambleaware.org link under all banners, removed juvenile banners (if the aff programme didn't change the media tags themselves) and added an aff terms link where provided, if it hasn't been I made a generic 'read the terms' page myself and linked it under all banners. Made sure there was a prominent 18+ banner on my site, and overlaid on YT videos. I did this to all banners/ads whether at that stage the aff programme had demanded it or not. I also added a Neteller/Skrill warning banner (as many bonuses will not be applicable to those webwallets) plus I mentioned the salient terms in any text. It's about all I can do.

I have also listed co-licensees on my 'new UK casinos' pages so the viewer won't get any EMSEB-type nonsense.

As for Interlog's point I have mentioned that in a lengthy letter via the UKGC's feedback tool which was linked on here in another thread.

As well as the above I also pointed out the unlicensed scam casinos (shithole casinos) which are (unwittingly?) aided and abetted by payment providers giving them services without checking that the casino is licensed to take money. Money is being laundered and untaxed gaming is occurring because of this - my suggestion to the UKGC was (given many of the big payment services are UK-based) that all gambling transactions should have an identifier code in them including the short 5-digit license number, i.e. for Trada say 'TRA-12345-(their own merchant code)-UK (country).

So your transaction would be, if in the UK, TRA-12345-6767-UK or similar. Payment providers would not be authorized to transfer money without due diligence checking the license status of any casino, then using it in their identifier code when a casino applies for a merchant account or direct card payments. I think this will have to happen happen eventually, especially when the UKGC is made aware of the amount of money being sent to illegal gambling operations like Alpha Interactive, Yucatan and Game Tech etc. from the UK/EU.
The parasite dies without blood.

 

[KasinoKing]

Do you do anything preemptive? Or do you just roll with the flow?

I have always had "Read the bloody terms!" & a responsible gaming message on my sites, with links to gambling help organisations.

Recently I have added the 18+ sign, read the terms and links to Gamcare on my home-page and and all other relevant UK pages.
Other than that, just whatever each individual operator has asked for in order for me to be compliant.

KK

 

[neilw]

I'm trying to have one standard that I apply right across my site. It's easier for me to manage and I'm more likely to implement it for each article / promotion.

What I want / need is for the affiliate programs to provide the links to the relevant promotions, not just hand out a generic links to their general T&C's. It makes it almost impossible to add a new promotion without a link to the specific T&C's.

I don't generally push welcome bonuses as they are not that relevant to Live Casino. But it's really difficult to get landing pages that aren't pushing some sort of slots offer or welcome bonus.

It's great to see them all waking up now and I've been encouraged that the last few have sailed through the compliance checks due to the previous work I've done.

 

[Nicola]

Can't say the last few months have been easy, but it does help that most casinos now have affiliatable links to promo terms and standard T&C.

Personally, I would like the UKGC / ASA to insist ALL affiliates have a direct link to GAMSTOP (when its introducted) on every page of their site that contains a link to a casino. I don't want this new scheme, which will be life-changing for some, to be hidden at the bottom of pages or mentioned on some low traffic page.

 

[Skyla Burrell]

Back in October 2017 Gambling City added the required blurb and a BGA link to all UK listings (one shot by our programmer).
It's made it easier for us to then go in and add the T&C links (should they be available, I am shocked how many are not yet offered).
Since then the most difficult part is keeping up on the ever-changing bonus offers and the 2 day turn-around times many partners are giving us to change them or close our accounts.

We have not added any additional text for the banners, if the partner does not have banners with the required wording, we pause them until they supply compliant banners.
Some have been very strict on the banners (Ignite Bingo) wanting us to add the text to the graphic (which we can't do). In those instances I asked the partner to supply banners that do not advertise a bonus, which has worked out OK so far.

Cheers,
Sky